Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Those Are Cows

We live in a city of 250,000 people. We also live within mooing distance of a farm that often has cattle and sheep and horses and llamas roaming the pastures. It isn't unusual to see a cow here and there on a weekly bases. My parents live on a farm. Cows move about the pastures surrounding them. So do goats, mules, circus ponies, and an occasional camel and elephant, but that's another story.

The point is: Callie has seen cows and sheep before .

So imagine my surprise Sunday as we were driving in Southern Oklahoma up I35, Callie looks out the window and says "Look! They have sheep!"

"Those are cows."

And the thing is they were just plain, ordinary brown, black, red mixtures.

Not pure bred white Charolais with little white fluffy calves running around that might be confused as sheep.

And, for the last couple of hours we had been passing pastures and pastures of cows.

What was it that made her suddenly say that? Why did she make the statement in Oklahoma and not in Texas? Why did she notice the animals there and not before? What was it that made her think they were sheep? Exactly what was going through her head? Will I ever stop being surprised?